While Americans’ votes have always been affected by how they pray, today politics is equally affected whether someone prays at all. I explore this phenomenon using Minnesota survey data, outside research and interviews. (MPR News, 12/18/2017)

The Pioneer Press analyzed 224,915 speeding tickets written by the Minnesota State Patrol over the past 3.5 years to find what the data said about who gets speeding tickets, when they’re written, and how fast drivers have to be going to get them. (Pioneer Press, 8/13/2017)

Two different projects, both analyzing roll call data in the Minnesota Legislature. Each one uses data, static and interactive graphics and interviews with both lawmakers and experts to explain what the data shows about voting in the hyper-polarized Minnesota House of Representatives.

I used a computer algorithm to analyze 147,000 words in all Minnesota State of the State addresses since 1969. Using a technique called “fuzzy c-means analysis,” I sorted governors into groups programmatically based on their word choices. Interviews with current and former gubernatorial advisors shaped out the story, which functioned both as analysis and as a preview to the 2016 address.

I created topographic maps of the Twin Cities and then spoke to experts on geology and human geography to explain the notable features on the map. Online version with higher resolutions and extra maps, including an animated map, here. (Pioneer Press 1/1/2016)

Minnesotans commonly conflate the state’s individual health care market with MNsure, the government-run exchange that has just one-sixth of that market. I clear up that misconception, and delve deeper into the question of why MNsure has such a low market share — arguably the lowest in the country. (Pioneer Press 10/12/2015)

Using data, maps and interviews, colleague Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and I lay out exactly how Democrats have improved their performance in the Twin Cities suburbs over recent decades. After smoothing out anomalies, such as three-way contests, uncontested races or disproportionately popular candidates, we showed that Democratic claims of suburban gains are real — though counteracted to a lesser extent by Republican gains in exurban areas. (Pioneer Press 09/27/2015)

Working with another reporter, I used interviews with experts and real people, data analysis and maps to explore the issue of algae blooms impairing Minnesota's famous 10,000 lakes (and many of its rivers, too).

With Republicans and Democrats miles apart in their predictions of how much a crackdown on waste, fraud and abuse in public health programs will save, I talk to both sides and a range of experts to get to the bottom of how much Minnesota would actually be likely to save. (Pioneer Press, 04/30/2015)

With Republicans proposing to abolish the “MinnesotaCare” state health program for the working poor, I explain the program and the controversy so readers can understand and make up their minds about what should be done. (Pioneer Press, 04/17/2015)

I digitized the text of all 39 State of the State addresses in Minnesota’s history and analyzed the word frequency patterns in each speech. The analysis identified quirks (one governor loved to talk about kitchens) and trends — Republicans said “families” and “crime” more often, while Democrats said “people” and “tax” more often. (Pioneer Press, 04/11/2015.)

A profile of a man who is little known despite being at the center of South Dakota’s EB-5 scandal. Documents and interviews paint the picture of the reclusive Joop Bollen as a charismatic and ambitious man with a love of business deals and Egyptian antiquities.

Some bills in the South Dakota Legislature divide legislators along ideological lines. Others are more a matter of loyalty to a lawmaker’s respective caucus. And some are geographic, pitting one region of the state against another.

I conducted an extensive quantitative analysis of voting patterns in the South Dakota Legislature, using a dataset of every single vote placed there for a three-year period. The first quantitative analysis of voting there, it showed Democrats and Republicans voting together at high rates despite differences on a few key issues. It also revealed that a more significant divide was between mainstream and conservative Republicans. I also produced visualizations of the data:

Starting in late 2013, South Dakota was convulsed by a scandal incorporating high politics, business and criminal investigations related to the “EB-5” program that had financed a bankrupt beef plant with foreign money. I covered the issue thoroughly, and in 2014 compiled all my reporting from the past year into a single primer to explain everything readers needed to know about the extremely complex issue. That primer contained links back to original articles for readers who wanted to learn more about a particular sub-issue.